Girls Of The Wild
by Pearcem
Summary: The air of her mother's farm is becoming stale and stifling but the dark, shadowy forest and the tall man with the adorable dog who seems to materialize out of it? A breath of fresh, cool air into Persephone's suffocating lungs. Perhaps it scares people to imagine that the goddess of spring was not taken; that she went of her volition, that she placed the crown atop her own head.
1. Strangers

**_They won't tell you fairytales of how girls can be dangerous and still win. They will only tell you stories where girls are sweet and kind and reject all sin. I guess to them it's a terrifying thought, a red riding hood who knew exactly what she was doing when she invited the wild in._**

 ** _\- Nikita Gill_**

* * *

Summer was my favourite time of year. The trees always blew in sweet, warm winds, and the flowers and grasses swayed to that same song - all the world, in harmony, if for only a moment in time.

I laid in the too-long grass just out of view of my three-story plantation home, face and arms and legs bared to the sun. My dress fluttered in the breeze, and sweat beaded on my forehead. My fingers dug themselves into the warm soil. I liked to imagine I could feel seeds, deep in the earth, and that I had the power to pull them to the surface, little baby sprouts that would grow rapidly into mature plants.

"Persephone!" My mom's voice carried over the distance I'd put between us. I heard her footsteps, and tilted my head to the side, squinting against the brightness. "Persephone," she said again, parting the tall grasses with her footsteps. She cast a shadow over me, momentarily reprieving my eyes of the bright glare of the sun. Her hands rested on her hips, her blonde hair shining. "What are you doing all the way out here?"

"Well what do you think I'm doing?"

She snorted. "I think you went frocliking and fell and never bothered to get back up."

I smiled, "Something like that."

She bent low and grabbed my hand in hers. "Come on, I'll make you a grilled cheese."

I perked up at that and eagerly got to my feet as she laughed. All the time I'd been away from home this past year, I could never make one that tasted like hers did, no matter how precisely I followed her recipe.

We walked side by side back to the house, taking our time, talking to the women under my mom's employ, who helped her work and maintain the fields. All of them, it felt like, had been around since I could remember.

I kicked off my shoes at the side door that led into the kitchen. Mom put on a playlist of our combined favourite music. It was an odd, yet fitting, blend of everything from country and pop to alternative and rap. Rap, however, was one of Mom's favourites - and who would have guessed that the picket-fence, kindest woman I knew would favour Eminem and Nicki Minaj?

I poured us glasses of lemonade out of the fridge and she placed the sandwiches on a plate. At my first bite, I gave a moan. No food should be _this_ good.

"Persephone, there's something I wanted to talk to you about," she said as she set her empty glass in the sink to be washed later.

"Sure," I said, still stuffing my face.

She stood across from me once more, reaching across the counter to tuck a stray strand of hair behind my ear. "Well, I was thinking...maybe you could transfer to the local college this year, and you could help me run the farm." She was smiling widely, and I swallowed down my last bite of grilled cheese, suddenly like saw dust in my mouth.

"Run the farm?" I said, voice high to my own ears. I loved the farm, absolutely, but to...give up school for it? Only one year in? I'd worked my butt off in high school to get this scholarship, get into this sciences program, and she was asking me to give it up?

"I...don't know, Mom," her face fell the second the words were out and I scrambled to take them back. "What about when I'm done school?"

"That's three years away."

"I - I'll think about it."

I turned and went upstairs, feet bounding up the polished wooden steps. My bedroom door was open from earlier that morning and I went in and sat and the bed. It was small and narrow, with a flowery blanket and a metal frame. At some point in high school, I'd twined fake flowers through the headboard. Sunlight shone bright and buttery through the two long windows and I knew if I got up and looked out them I'd see the women working away in the fields. From my position, though, all I could see was the past. The year-younger girl scared to leave, scared to not know anyone in a new town, not wanting to leave the sanctum of a room she'd spent years building and layering.

I got up suddenly, standing in front of my mirror. My sundress was a musty pink with little white polka dots and big brown buttons down the front. My hair was lying about my shoulders, and green eyes blinked back at me.

I looked a lot like my mom, and no one ever hesitated to point it out. We shared an eye colour, almost the same hair colour, and facial features. Sometimes people remarked that it was as though my mother was a copier and had brought into the world an exact copy of herself. But I had a squarer jaw, a long straight nose as opposed to her delicate uptilted one; my frame was slimmer, more slight. My face was covered in freckles.

The sunlight warmed the skin of my arms and I stood basking in it a few moments longer before bounding back down the stairs and out the kitchen door to the fields. I dashed, barefoot through stalks of wheat and grain, eventually into those tall grasses and wildflowers, all the while not catching any sight of my mother. For all the things I'd outgrown while I was away at school, I had certainly not outgrown dancing in the sunshine.

I bent low and picked a daisy from the ground, pulling off it's petals and playing He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not. I was almost through with the poor now-deformed flower when a bark caught me off guard and I jumped up straighter than I had been.

I spun around, my dress flaring out around me, stopping at the appearance of a big black dog bounding towards me. It's tongue lolled out of its mouth and its fur was all glossy and sleek.

"Come here, 'mere 'mere' 'mere," I called, bending at the waist and snapping my fingers to draw the dog's attention. As the dog got closer, I could hear its panting breaths and stuck my hand out to smooth across his fur. I squatted down, immediately assaulted by a slobbery tongue, licking my face and hands. I laughed when the dog jumped up on me, trying to sit in my lap, knocking me over.

Suddenly there was a sharp whistle and the dog gave a high whine and sat back, though it seemed sad to do so. I sat back up and continued petting it on its head.

"I'm very sorry about that."

The voice came from the where the fields ended in big, round trees and the forest began. I sat up straighter, squinting. He was just in the shadows, striding towards me and the dog. When light fell upon him, I all but lost my breath; here was this tall, lean man with a face that...that simply couldn't exist, and he was bending down, grabbing the dog's collar and attaching a leash.

He had black hair smoothed stylishly away from his face and he moved like liquid shadows, in matching black t-shirt and jeans. "He gets very excited when he goes on walks." I was awestruck and couldn't form the words to reply to him; no man, no woman, no _person_ , should have a jaw so sharp, a nose so perfectly defined, no eyes so lit blue with what had to be pure, unadulterated electricity.

When he stood up straight, the leash circled around one wrist, he reached down to help me up.

I smiled up at him. "Thank you," I brushed off the back of my dress, trying to make sure I wasn't accidentally flashing him. Uncomfortable and too nervous to look him in the eye any longer, I switched my gaze downwards, to the dog sitting obediently at his foot, tongue once again lolling out to the side. "What's its name?" I asked.

"Cerberus," he replied after a moment. Then he stuck out one of his hands again for me to shake. "I'm Hades."

I laughed lightly, shaking his hand. "Persephone," I told him. "Guess our moms both have a taste for the unusual."

Dark brows drew down over those bright blue eyes. "In truth," he began, "it's more of a family thing with me."

I shifted my weight. "I know what you mean," I laughed. The breeze made my dress float out a little from my legs and my hair blew into my face. I brushed it back impatiently, breathing in a gust of that nature-scented air. Hades' hair hadn't even moved, and he was regarding me seriously, almost in a contemplative manner. "Everyone in my family has ridiculous names. I'm one to talk, though." I finished with a smile and hoping my cheeks weren't as pink as I thought they were.

"Persephone!" My mother called loudly.

Hades blinked once. Another time, this time more slowly. Cerberus had hopped up, no longer stationary and obedient at Hades' heel. He was sniffing the air, ears perked.

"I'm afraid, Persephone," Hades said in his low cadence, "that I must be going. It was a pleasure to meet you."

I bent low and petted Cerberus, scratched behind his ears. He licked my hand eagerly, no longer paying such rapt attention to my mother, still calling for me. "You too," I said to Hades. "I might just steal your dog before you go, though."

"He would gladly let you, I fear," he half-smiled.

"Persephone! If you make me walk all the way over there, I swear -!"

I let an annoyed sound and whipped my head towards where her voice was coming from. "Give me a minute!" I shouted, and turned back to apologize to Hades, but he was gone.


	2. So We Meet Again

_**"I had forgotten what light meant, and so,**_  
 _ **this longed for moment **,** so anticipated, **_  
_**I stand still, dazzled by my own delight.**_  
 _ **I see you, and you see me, and we smile**_  
 _ **and your smile says you are pleased as me**_  
 _ **with everything and nothing still to say"**_

 _ **\- Jo Walton**_

* * *

"Where have you _been_?" My mom demanded. I opened my mouth to reply - to lie, actually - but she cut me off: "Nevermind. I know where you were: laying in the sun like a cat."

We were working side by side in the fields, which was too much a big word for what the fields actually were; a small corner of our property where my Mom and I had planted a vegetable garden when I was much younger.

There was just something about digging my fingers into warm soil and pressing it back with my palms, knowing that I was helping to create life. Knowing that in some way, I was contributing.

For dinner that night, Mom and I sat around the table, sharing the bounty we'd gleaned from our little vegetable garden with the women who'd worked all day in the fields, her truest friends my Mom liked to call them. We made spaghetti noodles out of zucchini and a fresh tomato sauce with our ripe tomatoes. In the meantime, while waiting for the sauce to come to a boil on the stove, we all snacked on the bounty of pomegranate seeds one of the women had brought over, laughing.

* * *

That night, I curled up in my old bed, the balmy summer air blowing in through the open window. I fell asleep to the sound of my curtains fluttering, and dreamt all night of a tall figure shrouded in shadows. In rare glimpses of sunlight, I saw unearthly blue where I thought the figure's eyes should have been.

* * *

Somehow, the next day was even hotter. There was no breeze to speak of and I thought of lying lazily in the house, but - impossibly - the heat was even worse inside than out. I wandered through the vast acres of land my mother owned, and it seemed the grass and flowers were shrivelling from the oppressive sun's gaze. I felt like I was suffocating in the heat too, and sought shade in the line of trees that my mother didn't like me to go near. She didn't have a reason, so I didn't listen. Not anymore, anyways.

I used the bottom of my palms to wipe sweat from my face, blinking as I sunk back against the trunk of a tree. What I wouldn't give for a glass of water to magically appear.

It was the perfect kind of silence; the chattering of birds, my heart beating in my chest, kicking off my sandals to feel the grass between my toes. A sweet smell drifted over to me, and as I breathed it in, I believed that everything would be perfect if it weren't for the heat. I leaned my head back against the rough bark. This had been my entire life but a year ago. I'd been wholly content to live my life on the farm, in this small southern town.

But things were different now. My mother's constant concern was no longer a simple fact of life; it was stifling and suffocating. The acres of land were no longer endless, with endless things to for me to see and discover. I'd seen it all - and it was all beautiful, to be sure, but I was bored.

I'd tasted life, drunk freedom down greedily and done whatever I'd wanted.

So this was...I was beginning to resent what my life had been before, began to resent my Mom for trying to push that back on me. Could she not know how I desired so much more than this quaint, cookie-cutter life?

I had cooled down as much as I probably would and stood up, feeling bad about how I'd just been thinking of Mom. I drifted further into the shade of the many trees. I saw a path, hidden away and hardly used enough to be noticeable. Just some trampled down grass, a few snapped twigs. I followed it all the same, and the shadows around me got thicker, a pleasant reprieve from the sunshine.

The leaves of the trees in perpetual shade were a deep green, darker than the ones in the sun, rich and vibrant. I could hear the birds calling, louder here, and other small animals scurrying along. Soon, the path forked, one curving out to the left, the other curving out to the right. I paused for a moment, debating, and a gentle breeze brushed against my face and lifted up my dress slightly.

On the left, sunlight broke through the leaves, shining down from overhead and giving the path a golden aura about it. On the right, scraggly, jagged tree branches reached out like they were trying to catch something in their spindly arms. No sunshine broke through there.

I headed for the left, and followed it all the way until it came to an abrupt end in front of a robust tree. Upon peeking around it, I found only denser forest and decided to head back. My sense of adventure wanted a glass of something sweet more than it wanted to go tripping over roots and rocks.

The path wasn't a long one, and I was shortly back to the fork but something was different this time - a dog was running at me, a black blur of slobber and excited barking.

It didn't slow as it neared me, and I thought it might swerve around me and continue on, but instead, it jumped up on me, knocking me back a few clumsy steps and I fell backwards and though I tried to stop it, I ended up flat on my butt. I made a noise somewhere between _oof_ and _ouch_.

The dog was on me, licking at my face with a vengeance. I was laughing, thinking that dogs really liked me these past two days and petting at the dog where I could when I heard a sharp whistle. Almost instantly, the licking stopped, and the dog merely sat down beside me, tail wagging.

I tilted my head up and felt shock course through me at meeting electric blue eyes. I tried to think of something witty to say, but instead "I think your dog likes me" fell out of my mouth.

He didn't smile, but his lips twitched and something in his demeanour shifted, and I suspected he was amused. "I'm inclined to agree with you."

Just like yesterday, he reached down a hand to help me to my feet. I took it gratefully, smiling bashfully at him as I brushed the dirt and grass off my dress. "Well," I said after a moment, "Cerberus certainly knows how to make an entrance."

This time, he laughed. "Funnily enough, he's only ever done this to you."

I raised my brows at him, unable to fight a smile. There was nothing better than being a dog's favourite. "Guess I have to join you on your walk if it makes Cerberus this happy to be around me."

To my surprise and joy, Hades readily nodded his consent. He still looked awfully amused. We walked side by side in silence for a moment, going along the path I'd originally taken into the trees. "So...where does that path go?" I asked after a minute.

Hades looked up at me, unstartled and calm, hair still perfectly styled and not a bead of sweat on his face for all the black he was wearing. "The one I came out of with Cerberus?" When I nodded, he continued, "Nowhere special. It's just a shortcut from my place."

I knew I had been MIA for more than a while with school and all, but I was positive there weren't any new houses or apartments near the farm. The closest was the Miller's, which was miles, and which I knew because Mrs. Miller worked for my mom. I decided to let it go for now, thinking maybe he lived in town and he'd found a trail that led back this way.

"What about you?" He asked, gesturing briefly to the tall grasses bathed in sunshine that met us as we came out from the trees. "Where does this lead?"

"Not really anywhere," I told him. "My Mom has a farm up that way, though," I pointed up to the left - not like you could see anything, anyway.

"A farm? With cows and horses and the like?"

I shook my head. "I shouldn't say farm - force of habit - it's more like a...produce farm. We sell locally, and to a few of the towns nearby." He nodded, eyes on Cerberus and his wagging tail as he sniffed at a fallen leaf. "Of course, that's mostly all my Mom."

After a long beat of silence, I continued: "What do you do?"

"I manage the dead," he said, absently. Then he added, with a darting glance in my direction, "Their estates, I mean."

To have a job like that, responsibility like that, I assumed he was at least a decent bit older than me. He didn't _look_ much older than me...

"And what about you, Persephone?" His voice was low and nearly melodious as he spoke.

I laughed slightly, looking at him sideways. "I told you, we -"

"Not your mother," he interjected. "You, Persephone."

His words stumped me for a second. "I'm in university," I said, almost questioningly. "I have a part-time job at a gardening store in Athens."

"Sounds fitting," he smiled, and butterflies of all shapes and sizes took flight in my stomach and ribcage, and my heart sped up to match the beating of their wings - and boy oh boy, I was in trouble.

* * *

 **Heya! Hope you're all liking it so far (feel free to drop me a review ;)). Any ideas what's gonna happen next? I'll give you a hint - it's based off an older version of the Hades/Persephone myth that I read about. :))**


	3. Permission

_**"i wasn't afraid, mama;**_  
 _ **i was bored. i was hungry.**_

 _ **do you know how long i waited**_  
 _ **for that fruit? me in the fields,**_  
 _ **the sunlight on my hair a crown.**_  
 _ **sweat on my palms glittering**_  
 _ **like starbursts carved in marble,**_  
 _ **teeth sharp as athena's sword.**_  
 _ **he took one look at me**_  
 _ **and broke the earth open**_  
 _ **for desire."**_

 _ **\- Cecilia Woloch**_

* * *

I led Hades down the property line, Cerberus panting and wagging his tail. "Is there somewhere specific you're taking me?" Hades handed me Cerberus' leash while he rolled up the sleeves of his black shirt. I watched, transfixed for a moment too much, at the way his arms were shaped and how the muscles moved underneath the pale skin.

I snapped my attention away from his arms, wiggled my eyebrows at him. "A river."

"A...river?" His highly-arched brows descended over his eyes as they narrowed.

"Yeah," I said, "Ever heard of them?" A gust of wind blew then, graciously welcomed by the both of us. I had no idea how Hades was dressed the way he was and was even mildly comfortable. I thought of inviting him to peel his shirt off when we got to the river and blushed, though I hoped he attributed my red cheeks to the heat.

"Never," he replied, darting a teasing glance in my direction. "I hear that some use them to bathe, however."

I laughed, the breeze lifting the hair off my shoulders. "I thought Cerberus could cool down for a little, but you're more than welcome to join him if you like."

Hades' lips twitched towards a smile and suddenly my lips were pulling back to smile wider. We were silent a moment, only the song of the birds and grasses swaying against the soles of our shoes between us. Then he held his hand out for Cerberus' leash back, and I snatched it out of his reach.

"Mine!" I said, twirling further away. Cerberus barked after me and followed suit.

Hades made a face. "Persephon -"

"Nope! My dog now - get a new one."

And he looked very frustrated suddenly, unsure how to express the feeling. He also seemed to want to laugh at me. "I -" he began and stopped. His stops ceased, as well, and he put a hand to his chin, staring at the ground in contemplation. Finally he glanced up, fixed a hard and even expressions on me. "You can't have my dog."

I walked a few steps closer, folded my hands together in a pleading motion, the leather of the leash against my knuckles, and tilted my head back. I painted a pout over my face, "Please, Hades? Pretty please?"

His gaze had never left me, that hard, even stare and - suddenly it wasn't so hard or even. His blue eyes were wide, brows halfway to his hairline, and a bright pink flush was building in his pale face.

I unfolded my hands and gave a dramatic sigh, trying not to grin. Did _I_ make him that flustered?

I held out the leash in Hades' direction: "Take him."

Hades cleared his throat and looked away, to his right. "No that's - um...It's alright, Persephone."

"You sure?" I teased.

He cleared his throat again. "Quite."

* * *

The river was a lot smaller than I remembered it. It was more a narrow stream, running through the forest, the smooth water broken up by bursts of sunlight breaking through the overhead leaves.

There was, however, still that flat, slightly slanted rock that I'd always loved to read on. I sat down on the lower end, calling Cerberus to me. I petted him behind his ears, his tongue lolling out to the side, and with Hades' okay, unhooked Cerberus - who bounded away almost immediately, splashing into the stream.

I got up and tentatively dipped a toe in the water - it was cold, but refreshing and a reprieve from the heat and sweat I'd been feeling all day. So I took a few steps in, trying to avoid Cerberus' sprays of water as he chased what I thought was a bee.

"Do you often try to steal peoples' dogs?" Hades asked behind me. He was sitting on the same low side of the rock I had been, one leg stretched out as he rolled up the pant leg on the other. His shoes and socks were put together neatly next to his feet.

"Only yours," I hummed in reply, pulling all my hair over to one shoulder and dividing it into three parts.

"Glad to know your aptitude for theft is only newly acquired."

I tilted my head back and laughed, fingers pausing on the braid. Hades didn't flinch at the coolness of the water as he moved to stand beside me, but I noticed his cheeks were pink again and his vivid blue eyes were on me. Butterflies flapped their wings in my belly, and I had to look away in case I was turning pink, too.

"Persephone!" The shout rang through my head abruptly. My heart started flailing around in me, almost like it was ringing the alarm bell. "Persephone!" My mother called again, and it seemed to happen all at once: I was standing and then Cerberus was knocking me over and I was falling backwards, and then Hades caught me by the hands and was hauling me back to my feet and I tripped and suddenly - suddenly -

"Persephone what on Gods' green Earth are you doing?!" My mother shouted, and I felt frozen, absolutely stuck, like my feet had taken root in the soil beneath the water and I had no hope of moving even the smallest fraction of an inch.

My mom started to march over to me, lips twitching in that way I knew they did when she was especially angry. I couldn't remember that look ever being directed at me the way it was now, and I couldn't tell if it was my heart beating that frantically, or Hades', because we were pressed so close together, practically tangled. He'd yanked me to my feet with so much momentum I had fallen right into him and Hades had done his best to break my fall _again_.

I tried to scramble away from Hades, but our feet were tangled, and this time I did fall into the water. Water splashed, and when I stood, the bottom and nearly whole backside of my dress was dripping, soaked through.

"Persephone, get over here this instant! Get away from him!"

I scowled at my mom, though I was more confused than anything. I was sopping, embarrassed, and _she_ was the one who got to be angry?

"Excuse me," I said to Hades without turning my head, and marched out of the water, fists balled by my sides.

As soon as I was out of the water, my Mom pulled me into her side, wrapped her arms around me while shooting Hades a scathing glare that promised murder and nothing less, but probably something worse.

"You know you're not allowed here," she said in a low voice. "Not without permission, and certainly not around my daughter."

Hades' eyes moved slowly from my mother to me, as I tried to shrug her off. "Apologies," he said to her, and I thought he might be being sarcastic. "My dog needs his exercise as much as the next."

I looked away, biting back a small laugh, and when I turned back, he was gone, so were his shoes, and so was Cerberus.


	4. What Am I

**_"i wasn't afraid, mama_**  
 ** _i wasn't taken. i left._**  
 ** _if only you knew_**  
 ** _how his hair is the softest_**  
 ** _when he's on his knees,_**  
 ** _coaxing spring_**  
 ** _from inside me"_**  
 ** _\- Cecilia Woloch_**

* * *

"You are never to go near the forest again, do you understand me Persephone?" She was all but shouting. Her hands were balled into fists at her side, and I'd never in my life gotten the impression that my mother, the gentle farmer woman who had raised me, had the capacity for violence, but I felt in this moment she could set the world on fire and gladly watch it burn. I had never thought she had the capacity for such a rage.

I whirled around. "You can't tell me what to do anymore! I am not a child!"

"As long as you are under my roof, Persephone, you will do as I say! I don't care if you're nineteen or a thousand and nineteen!" She breathed in sharply. "If you go near that - that _man_ again -!"

"You'll what?!" I returned, shouting too. "What could you possibly do?!"

Suddenly, the fire in her eyes dimmed, and her expression became even as she regarded me. "I could do many terrible things, Persephone - but I would not enjoy them."

"Terrible things?! Are you out of your mind, Mom?"

"You are capable of them, as well, my flower. Humans are capable of many atrocities, but we are capable of much worse. The world knows nothing of the kind of power I clench in my fist, of the power -"

" _Come again_?"

She reached out, wrapped her fingers around my hands, gently. "I've been putting this off for some time, haven't I?"

"Putting off - Mom, you're scaring me." I tried to back away, but that gentle grip held firm, and maybe it wasn't so gentle after all.

She looked me in the eyes, "There's nothing to be afraid of, Persephone."

"Well consider me afraid." I finally yanked my hands free, rubbing where her fingers had touched like she'd burned me.

"Listen, sweetheart," she implored. "I've already put this off much too long, and you need to hear the truth, and hear it from me before _he_ tells you."

"He? Do you mean _Hades_?"

"Yes, Hades." She paused, seeming to debate with herself. "He's not all he appears, and neither are you, neither am I, Persephone."

* * *

I was following my Mom out to the fields, our little garden, trying my best to keep up. She wasn't a tall woman, and her legs didn't span miles with each step, but she was on a mission; I was jogging to keep up.

"What're you doing?" I asked her again.

"You have to see," she repeated.

"See _what_?"

Finally, we reached the fields. She pointed to a small little tree, skinny and young, that she had helped me to plant when I was little. When I opened my mouth to ask what she was doing now, she cut in: "Just watch, Persephone."

And I did.

Suddenly, the tree shot up, spread out, swallowing the ground around it and blotting out the sunshine as leaves unfurled from the branches, which had moments ago been mere twigs.

I staggered back, swearing colorfully.

My Mom shot me a look, hand on her chin, looking for all the world like the biggest thing that had just happened was my cursing. "I'll let that one go, considering the circumstances."

Meanwhile, all I could think about was the amazingly gigantic tree now encroaching on the vegetable garden. "What the _hell_ , Mom?" This time, I gave her a look.

She took a few steps towards me. "That is what I wanted to show you."

I fumbled for words for a second. "A tree? A rapidly maturing tree?" I was still gaping at the tree's trunk.

"Funny, Perse," she rolled her eyes, but then smiled gently at me. Like I was a startled animal she was trying to save. "That's what we're capable of, honey. That and so much more."

"Mom, you sound like you're losing it."

She crossed her arms over her chest, lifting a brow at me. "You can do the same thing, Persephone."

I raised my eyebrows back. "Prove it, then."

"You have to prove it to yourself, sweetie."

* * *

 _Prove it to yourself_. How ridiculous was that? Ridiculous, but certainly not as much as watching my mom insta-mature a tree. God. I felt like I was losing it. Was insanity hereditary? Maybe I should look into that.

I sat up to get my phone, to start googling away but fell back into the flowery wallpaper of my wall instead. I pulled my knees up to my chest and laid my head down on them. I had no idea what to think, but...but maybe someone else might? Maybe someone else could help me understand this?

What was I thinking? Hades...I didn't even know where to find Hades. But I knew where to find a good space to think.

I climbed out of bed, shimmying into a pair of jean shorts lying on the floor, and, tiptoeing down the stairs, shoved my feet into a pair of flip flops that I couldn't tell where mine or my mom's in the dark. They felt a bit big, so I guessed mom's.

The kitchen door shut silently behind me, and I headed out into the greenery shrouded in night. A warmish breeze blew, making the longer grasses reach out and tickle my legs, and the moon was bright and full overhead. It gave a very faint blue-white hue to the things that it graced with light.

I thought coming out to the fresh air, the plants and the trees would help give me what I needed to think through whatever it was that was going on. But, nothing. I was still stuck on what to do, where to go from here.

Hades' name popped into my head again, unbidden and uninvited. I sighed to myself. What was the harm in trying to find him, even when I knew I wouldn't?

I turned to my right, heading for the line of trees, even darker than everything else outside. Twigs and leaves crunched underfoot, and I heard small animals roaming around. It was eerie, but if Hades could walk this all the time, why couldn't I? There obviously wasn't anything dangerous out here.

I let my fingertips drift across bark, let myself go slowly so as not to trip over roots. I came to the fork in the path - and I knew there was nothing but a dead end down the left path, but I thought, I swore I could remember Cerberus bounding out of those dark trees. I hesitated for a moment - but what was the harm? The worst that could happen was I came to the dead end and came back the way I'd gone.

I took a step down the trail, and when my apprehension saw that there was nothing wrong, my steps became surer, my steps more confident. If I really was what Mom said, what did I have to fear from trees and plants?

I kept walking what felt like forever, but I knew couldn't have been - just today, it had taken me mere minutes to come to the end of the trail.

Up ahead, I spotted a bright spot, where moonlight was breaking through overhead tree branches. I sped up towards it. When I got close enough, I could see flowers everywhere and knew I'd hit something when I noticed some of them were trampled. _So maybe it isn't a dead end after all_...

There was enough illumination from the moon that I could see all the colours of the flowers, and a white one that seemed to glow caught my eye. I couldn't remember seeing one like this before, and I was sure I'd seen them all; I bent down and plucked it out of the ground. I straightened and was about to bring the flower close to my nose to smell its perfume when the ground shook beneath my feet. At first, it was subtle, until suddenly it wasn't, and I thought the ground would split open with the force of whatever earthquake this must be -

But that's not quite what happened.

The ground did split, and a huge chasm began to yawn before me, spreading faster than I could run, until I fell into it.


	5. Trust

_**"To understand Demeter's heartache,  
Think of every mother who broke her own heart  
Time and time again to give her children a better future.**_

 _ **The mothers who walked away  
from abusive spouses,  
the mothers who faced danger  
for their children  
the mothers who broke their backs  
just to give their children a better future,  
the mothers who chose their children's comfort  
over their own every time.**_

 _ **And all this at the same time as nurturing us  
from root to sapling to trees to forest.  
**_

 _ **There is no greater love.  
There never will be."**_

 _ **\- Nikita Gill**_

* * *

A scream ripped out of my throat. I flailed my arms and legs, too far from the opposites sides of the chasm to grab onto anything. Tumbling dirt turned to black stone right before my eyes, and I screamed and screamed until I was falling so fast I couldn't get a sound out.

All I could see in front of me was impenetrable blackness that I was speeding through, moving faster than I ever had. And then I hit what must have been the bottom, the very center of the earth, except there was no magma and I wasn't boiling alive in it. I hit so hard all the bones in my hands felt like they broke as I held them out to catch myself. But it was useless; I rolled, still with so much momentum from falling so far that I felt my shoulder come out of the socket when it hit whatever it was I'd fallen onto. My teeth rattled in my skull, and I was still screaming.

I laid in what I was starting to think was very coarse sand, knowing - knowing and absolutely dreading what I had to do next. I rolled to my stomach and did my best to push myself up onto my knees without my hands, spitting sand out of my mouth. They hurt bad enough without touching anything, and I tried not to look at them for fear that some bone had pierced through my skin.

I don't know how, but I was on my feet, and my eyes were still adjusting to the darkness. I made some sort of noise, I don't know what, and gritted my teeth as I threw myself down on the ground with as much force as I could, shoulder first.

Black spots blotted out what little I could see, and I thought I might pass out from the pain and the relief that putting my shoulder back in brought me. I didn't notice I'd stopped screaming until just then, laying again in the sand.

I blinked at the dim light above me, and became suddenly aware of the noises.

All around me.

Groaning and moaning, and maybe worst of all, the hissing. A shadow descended over me, and I was again in darkness. "Pretty thing," it hissed, and my heart beat like it never had before.

I was going to be sick and I was going to die and I didn't know where I was and what was happening to me and my mom would never know, either -

Without thinking, I held up my hands, mangled though they definitely were. I - I trusted my Mom, wholeheartedly, even if she spouted some crazy shit sometimes, so I was going to trust her here and reach deep down for something, anything inside me that had the slightest chance of saving me.

The sand beneath me began to shake, and adrenaline pumped into my veins, preparing to run - _not again_ , I thought. _Please, please_ \- but, wouldn't anywhere be better than right here right now?

So I stayed exactly where I was, pushing myself to my knees easily because suddenly my hands didn't hurt so much, and let the Earth tremble. "Pretty thing, delicious thing," it said. I couldn't see it, but I felt the hairs on my neck and arms rising, instinctively knew it had to be getting closer.

I put my hands out again, reaching for some sort of power again, and the ground trembled even worse, absolutely shuddering, until with a great heave that knocked me to the sandy ground - trees burst forward, the leafy limbs wrapping around whatever the Thing was, and I imagined it choking as the trees - where they mine? - wrapped tighter and tighter until it had no hope of ever getting free or drawing breath again.

I staggered to my feet, spitting out more sand, and giving whatever the Thing was the finger. On both hands.

I walked onwards, having no idea where I was going, but I kept hearing noises, and so I kept holding my hands out to my sides, imagining the same thing happening to everything that made those noises that made me jump out of my skin.

How was I ever going to get out of here? Especially when I had no idea where _here_ was? I stared listlessly ahead, wishing I'd just stayed in bed and slept on my troubles, wishing I'd just gone and talked to Mom.

Suddenly, I felt something wet and cold pooling around my ankles. I let out a startled scream, scampering back and looking frantically down. But - was that - it was only water. I held my hands to my face, sighing into them.

"Do you need help, Miss?" A voice asked from a distance. I jumped again, swinging my head side to side to try and find the speaker. "In the boat, Miss."

Sure enough, there was a long boat floating on the water, the rising mist parting around it. A man stood in it, seeming to paddle with a long stick. I cleared my throat, but my voice was still raw when I spoke: "I could...I could use some help." The boat came nearer, and I apprehensively climbed in. "Where am I?" I asked hoarsely, looking up at the man who was shrouded in a hooded black cloak.

"You should know that if you're here, shouldn't you?" He returned as he began moving the wooden stick in long, even strokes that barely seemed to disturb the water beneath the boat. When I said nothing in reply, he looked hard at me from under the hood, though I couldn't see his face, really. "You're in the Underworld."

I stopped short. The Underworld...hadn't my Mom said that Hades...ran the Underworld? "Take me to Hades, please."

The man laughed. "Souls don't get to see the Lord of the Underworld -"

A soul? Holy shit. "I'm not a soul," I told him. "I'm a goddess." Who cared if it was true? Right now, I didn't.

"No wonder you came out of Tartarus intact," he muttered and steered the boat in a different direction than we had been going. I had no idea what Tartarus meant, and I wasn't sure I wanted to know, so I just focused on my hands, and how they, thankfully, didn't hurt almost at all anymore. Maybe I hadn't broken them after all.

The man and I didn't speak further until the boat bumped gently against a wooden dock. "Best of luck," he said as I stepped onto the creaky dock, and paddled back out into the water until the mist rising off the water blocked him from my sight entirely.

It wasn't so dark in this part of the Underworld, not at all. In fact, it was almost...sunny. If the sunshine was very fake and simulated. _Where to go from here?_ I thought. _Well maybe the King of Hell would be in the giant castle in front of you, Persephone. Let's try that_.

I walked until I found a door, and pushed on it. It didn't budge. I let out a frustrated noise. I needed this door to open, because I needed to see Hades. Needed him to tell me what in the world was going on, because if anyone would know it would be him.

I'd lost my flip flops somewhere along the way, probably when I fell into the abyss, so I kicked at the door with my bare foot, putting as much force behind the move as I could. And did it again, and again, and again, until my feet were sore and then I resorted to banging my hands against the door.

Finally - finally! - the door swung inwards. A brown-haired girl stood before me. "Hi, Persephone."

I blinked at her, stunned. "You - how do you know my name?"

She gestured for me to come inside, and after I did she shut the door. "Name's Cassandra. Apollo cursed me with prophetic visions, I died in the Trojan War, and here I am." She shrugged.

I let out a gasp at the opulence of the inside of the castle. "Trojan War?" I asked her absently. The room, whichever room it was, was all white and sparkling marble, with veins of black and gold running through it. There were pillars of it, and it was so bright to look at it hurt my eyes.

"Yeah, it killed a lot of people. A lot of them deserved it, though. Well, guess it depends how you look at it - anyway, follow me." We went down a darker hallway, and it seemed to stretch forever, with doors every now and then. The floor was now made of stones, and it kept getting darker.

"I need" - I swallowed thickly, the sand rough and painful on my throat - "I need to talk to Hades."

Cassandra grinned back at me, her teeth bright in the darkness. If she was dead like she said, she should have been a corpse, not walking, talking and smiling. "Oh, yeah I know. Saw you coming from a mile away, choking evil bastards in Tartarus with tree branches. Didn't really believe it when I saw it."

"Do you see everything?" I asked, just so I didn't have to listen to myself breathing and my heart pounding against my ribs in the silence and think about how everyone I'd seen so far should have been skeletal.

"No," she shook her head. "I just see the important things in the world. Disasters, usually. Sometimes things about the Gods."

We came out into a dark room. Not dark because there was no light, but just - everything was black. The dais, and the throne on it, the pillars and the great doors and -

"Hades!" I shouted, at the sight of a tall lean figure heading towards a small door at the right of the massive room. The figure stopped, and I yelled again: "Hades!" This time it turned, and electric eyes met mine.

Suddenly he was in front of me, like he'd moved without me seeing. "Persephone?" And then, "Cassandra, what the hell is she doing here?"

Cassandra held up her hands. "I'm out." She turned, leaving the room the way we'd come.

Hades stared at me, eyes wide and worried and afraid and kind of...pissed off? "I...fell."

"You fell," he repeated.

Suddenly it all came out of me in a rush: "My Mom told me I'm different and then instantly matured a tree and said you were different and then I got out of bed to think and thought 'Hey maybe Hades will know something about this stuff and I can ask him' so I went looking for you down the path - you know, the one I met you and Cerberus on this morning? - and I didn't hit a dead end like I usually do, and then I saw moonlight and a glowing flower and I picked it and the ground opened up. Naturally I fell, because, you know, gravity, and I dislocated my shoulder I think and I thought I broke my hands but I didn't - I was in a giant sandpit and I think I swallowed some and I think something wanted to eat me so I imagined choking it with tree branches and then there was a boat and a guy and then Cassandra -"

His hands wrapped around my shoulders and he crouched down to meet my eyes. "Persephone," he said and I stopped talking. When he looked me in the eyes, I realized I was all right. Scared, sure. But intact. Suddenly, I felt like crying. "Are you okay?"

I swallowed around the lump forming in my throat. I nodded.

Hades cocked his head, expression serious. "You don't look okay."

I shrugged, feeling the weight of his hands on my shoulders. I cleared my throat, mustering a smile. "I have to admit, falling into the Underworld wasn't the best way to find you."

Something flickered in his expression. "You were looking for me?"

I nodded again, "Yeah."

"What could you possibly need me for?" His voice was soft, and so was his face, all of a sudden. His eyebrows weren't furrowed anymore, he didn't look pissed off. He looked...I couldn't place it, but I thought it might be a contributing factor to why my heart was beating so fast.

I took a deep breath, turning my face away so he wouldn't see the tears in my eyes. "I had questions, and I thought you might be able to help."

His voice was still soft when he asked, "What do you need help with? I'm here."

I gave a laugh, but it sounded pitiful and about a second away from tears. I took another deep breath, trying to reign in the tears with it. "I - I - my Mom said...God this is going to sound insane but what do I have to lose, right? The ground just swallowed me whole and -" I had to stop to collect my thoughts, rake my hand back through my hair to get it off my face. I wished desperately for a hair tie right then. "Goddess. She said I'm - me and her, are goddesses. Is that...that's not complete insanity, is it?"

"No, it's not," he replied simply, and I sucked in air like I was suffocating. I gently detached his hands from where they still rested on my shoulders and began pacing the insanely big room. Everything was insane right now, wasn't it? I flexed my fingers, feeling for any pain, but there was nothing. I leaned my back against one of the endlessly tall pillars and let myself slide down it until I was on the floor.

It was quiet, and I don't know how long I sat there, really, before I noticed Hades sitting against the pillar adjacent to mine. He met my eyes. "I'm sure that wasn't your only question."

It wasn't. Not by a long stretch. And sure, there were more important questions, probably, but, I knew enough about Greek mythology and… "So...you would be my Mom's...brother?" If so, there was all kinds of messed-up going on in my head.

"Technically speaking, I suppose. But the original Olympians weren't born. We were created, so no, we don't share any genetic material. Whereas take you, for example," he said, "Demeter gave birth to you."

Well, then. Now I knew my birth certificate was actually legitimate. However, I didn't care right now. "So what can I do?"

"I'm not sure," he admitted. "We'll figure it out in time. I'd guess, though, that you inherited more of Demeter's talents than Zeus'."

I swung my head around. "Pardon? Zeus?"

"Your mother and Zeus had a bit of a fling," Hades shrugged. "It's unsurprising, but still made Hera furious."

I dropped my head into my hands. _What the fuck?_ a small voice in my head whispered. Hera? Zeus? My Mom _shacking up_ with Zeus?

Hades was studying me. I could feel him watching me, so I turned to meet his eyes. They were so blue, the most beautiful colour of eyes I'd ever seen. He got to his feet and offered me his hand. I took it, and he pulled me to my feet. "How about you sleep, and we can talk more in the morning?"

I felt anything but tired, in fact I was wired and still pacing, but Hades looked like he was worried for my sanity, so I agreed and he led me out the normal-size door on the right side of the grand room.

* * *

So **that was...a lot. I had hella fun writing this chapter, and I hope you all liked it!**


	6. An Affair of Marble and Breakfast

_**"I'll come back when he bores me,**_  
 _ **but Mama,**_  
 _ **not today."**_  
 _ **\- Daniella Michallen**_

* * *

The halls didn't seem so dark or scary when I had the literal Lord of the Underworld leading the way. The darkness still bothered me, though - it seemed like...like something more than darkness. Like it was a living, breathing thing. I tried for a laugh, but it didn't come out quite right: "You don't like lights, do you?"

Hades turned his head to the side, then turned it more and stopped his long-legged pace when he seemed to realize I was walking behind rather than beside him. When I caught up with him, he replied, "I'm used to it, I suppose. It never occurs to me these days that other people might find it dark." He paused, looking thoughtful as we went. Then he shot me a wry look, "Though I can't say the dead have ever mentioned it to me."

My eyes widened. Since I'd hit the ground in Tartarus my sole goal had been staying alive, and once I'd managed that, my focus had shifted to finding Hades. Now, I was left with questions and things clicking into place - like, namely, right now, the dawning comprehension of what, specifically, being Lord of the Underworld meant.

My laugh sounded wrong again: "You really, uh, manage the dead, don't you?"

"With every breath I breathe," we turned right and it took me a moment to adjust to the brightness of the room compared to that of the halls, but when I did, I looked down at the beautiful green marble with strands of white twisting through it, only to see my reflection stare back at me. I nearly shrieked, it shocked me so much. Instead, though, I held back my scream and merely jumped out of my skin.

"Are you alright, Persephone?" Hades stared hard at me, seeming to try and find the problem.

I tipped my head to the ceiling, trying not to think of the probably thousands of pounds of dirt hovering above us, and let out a quiet sigh. _Scared by your own reflection, Persephone. Wow._ To be fair, though, my eyes had peered back at me in the ridiculously shiny marble floor, and I was dirt-streaked and stained, and my hair was uncharacteristically gray with sand. "Fine," I tried for a smile at Hades, "Just scared of my own reflection." I gestured to the floor.

He looked like he wanted to laugh, but was suppressing the urge, the way his lips were pressed together and his brows turned in. But all he said was, "You have nothing to be afraid of in my realm, Persephone. Absolutely nothing, and you can hold me to that."

"Realm?" I asked as we continued through the room, taking another dark hallway.

"After me and the original Olympians overthrew the Titans, Zeus, Poseidon, and I divided up the parts of Earth, so to speak," he explained. "Zeus wanted the sky, and Poseidon liked the oceans, so I got what was left - the Underworld."

"Sounds like a crappy deal for you," I said, frowning. Who would choose the Underworld? No real sunshine, no life, just darkness and Tartarus and marble and souls from what I'd seen.

Hades shrugged, giving me an apathetic look. "It is what it is, and if I'm honest, I don't think there's something else better suited for me."

He didn't seem upset about it, but I couldn't lie: I was a little bummed for him. "So you like it, but don't you ever feel like your missing out on, well, life?"

"I don't know," he said, "Things down here keep me busy enough, and I didn't like the way the world was when the Olympians ruled over it. I suppose I might like it more that they've lost most of their power and don't rule anymore, but there's so much to be done."

I sped up and walked backwards in front of him, smiling. This time, I knew it came out right. "Well I have to show you it all, then."

His eyebrows lifted, and he had this look on his face that just - I had to laugh. "Like a tour guide?" he asked dryly.

I clapped my hands, beaming. "Yes! Exactly like that - and see! you know what a tour guide is, so you're not completely out of the loop!" I lied.

"Persephone," my name rolled off his tongue in a smooth drawl as he came to a stop at a black, wooden door and leaned against the frame. "When I said I don't spend much time aboveground, I didn't mean it as I haven't been topside since ancient times."

I let out a breath, rolling my eyes. "Thank you, Mr. Lord of the Underworld, I had no idea. Not like we met when your dog decided to bulldoze me, or anything." He opened his mouth to retort, but I spoke before he could. "Where _is_ Cerberus?"

"Guarding the gate the to Underworld."

I looked at him, dumbfounded. "Well he's not doing a very good job, the sweetheart."

Hades squinted at me, like he hadn't heard me or was very confused. Honestly, the guy was so old it could've been either one. "What do you mean?" Confused, then.

I spread my arms out as I spoke, "I literally fell into your realm, so he can't be doing a very good job gate-guarding."

Hades gave me an amused little smile, his eyes bright even in the dim hallway. "That's not the entrance," he said. "It's a portal. I use it to take Cerberus on walks. The entrance a soul would come through is at the front."

I gave him another look, half dumbfounded, half indignant. "You take that precious dog through that - through Tartarus? What could possibly possess you to take him there? Better yet, what possessed you to put a portal that leads into _Tartarus_?!" I was near shouting as I stood across the hall from him, my hands balled into fists at my sides.

"Persephone, I can portal to anywhere in my realm, faster than any evil thing in Tartarus could get to me or Cerberus. Besides -"

I hit him lightly on the arm, arching a brow, "Hey, who said I cared about _your_ well-being?"

He was wide-eyed. His mouth opened, then closed, then opened, and I thought there was a little bit of pink in his cheeks.

I smiled at him, "I'm kidding. Now," I gestured to the door he was leaning against, "Is this my hotel room?"

Hades visibly relaxed, and retuned my smile with an uptilt of his lips. He turned the knob, the door swinging inwards. "After you."

I took a step inside, then another. The room was brightly lit, and seemed to rotate around the plush-looking, massive canopied bed in the center. The black floor was cold underneath my feet, and my attention got snagged on every piece of furniture: antique-looking things, carved and beautiful and eggshell white. The contrast from the dark bedding and floor was almost jarring.

I walked to the vanity table, dragging my fingertips lightly across the surface. "Wow," I whispered. I'd never gotten to stay in a room so nice. My room at home was boxy, with a creaking bed and a big dresser swallowing up floor space. My dorm at university had been messy and I'd been too busy to put much effort into decorating. I drifted to the massive bed, flopping down on it. I turned my head to the side, grinning up at Hades who was leaning against the doorframe again. "I might move in," I told him.

His eyebrows rose at my statement. "I don't think Demeter would like that very much."

I rolled my eyes, turning to stare up at the canopy, made up of a wispy, see-through gray fabric. " _Demeter_ ," I said, "may be my mother, but I am perfectly capable of making my own decisions. Thanks."

"I never said otherwise," Hades returned easily. We lapsed into silence for a moment before he spoke again. "Are you hungry?" He asked.

I looked at him again, making a face. "It's the middle of the night."

"Actually, it's about five a.m.," he corrected.

I yawned. "I think I'll just lay down for a bit."

He gave a nod of his head. "Cassandra is just down the hall, if you need anything." _If you need me_ , I wondered if he was implying. I rolled onto my stomach and looked at him, returning the nod. He closed the door quietly behind him, and I listened for his footsteps as the sound faded the further he went.

I buried my face in the soft comforter, having one coherent, non-freaking-out thought before I dozed off: I'm probably a little bit screwed.

* * *

I scrambled upwards, gasping for breath.

My heart was speeding in my chest, and I didn't recognize the things around me. Whose bed? Whose blankets? Where was the _sunshine_?

It sunk in slowly, where I was. Last night.

I crawled out of the blankets, stretching, feeling like I should be going back to bed because there was no sun. But if it was five when Hades was here, it was at least the morning already. _Cassandra is just down the hall if you need anything_.

I opened the door, padding down the hallway, hoping I was heading the right way. It was brighter in the hallway than I remembered it being last night. I began knocking on doors, moving on when I didn't get an answer. Finally, the one at the very end swung open when I knocked.

"Morning, sunshine," Cassandra chriped. Her brown hair hung around her shoulders, framing her face, and she wore jeans and a bright blue hoodie.

"Morning," I replied, noticing her frown. "What?"

She tugged my arm, pulling me into what was presumably her room. "You look like hell, Persephone." Before I could say anything back, she added, "And you kind of stink." She tossed a towel at me from the top of her closet. "Go shower," she jerked her head at the door to my left.

"If you recall," I said, "I fell through a crack in the ground last night."

"Oh, I recall," she returned, pushing me into the bathroom. "I'll have something for you to wear when you get out. Then we'll go eat."

A shower sounded nice. And so did food. I was starving and there was that gray sand caked under my nails still, and I just felt...gross. "Thanks."

* * *

"What do you think?" Cassandra was smiling at me like she already knew I liked what she'd picked out.

And I _did_ like it. She'd picked me a short tan skirt with fabric-covered buttons going up the front, a white tank top, and red, faux-leather ankle boots. It wasn't something I think I would've picked myself, but...damn if I didn't look good. I beamed at her, did a little spin. "I think it's perfect. The only thing that would make it better is food."

Cassandra held out her elbow, and I looped my arm through hers. "So how does it feel to be a Goddess?" She asked.

I laughed. "Not much different from how I felt when I thought I was human."

She rolled her eyes, letting out an exasperated sound. "Persephone, that's because you haven't learned the fun part yet."

I furrowed my brows as I looked at her. "Which would be, _what_ , exactly?"

"The powers, duh," she gave me a look like that should have been obvious as we passed through the room with the green marble floor. "You really don't know anything, huh?"

I bristled, crossing my arms. "I know -"

"I didn't mean it that way, Persephone," she cut in. "I meant you don't know anything about being a Goddess. About the Gods."

I thought about what she said as we lapsed into silence. I tried to remember which hallways and turns we were taking, but they all looked the same, nothing to mark them as different from one another. But the light gradually got warmer, less like the white coolness of fluorescents, and we came to a wide open room with a long table.

Hades sat alone at the head of it.

My chest got tight at the sight of him, the harsh cut of his jaw as he stared off to the side, the dark of his hair and the unbelievable brightness of his eyes as he turned to look at us. I felt like one of those poor butterflies pinned to a collector's board as he surveyed me and then Cassandra.

"Morning, ladies," he greeted.

"I want to see Cerberus," I blurted before I could think better of it. Heat bloomed in my cheeks, and I had to force myself to hold his eyes.

Slowly, slowly, the corners of his lips curled up like he was trying so hard not to let himself grin the heart-stopping grin that he did. "That can be arranged," he was still smiling. "But first, have something to eat."

Cassandra plopped down in the chair on Hades' left, and I took the one at the right. There was an array of food to choose from, and my mouth watered at the stacked pancakes and waffles. I took two of each, smothering them in butter and syrup, cutting into them eagerly.

Cassandra picked up a piece of melon with two fingers from a plate of fresh-looking fruit, chewing thoughtfully as Hades asked, "Anything important going to happen today, Cassandra?"

She swallowed, shrugged. "A plane's going to go down into the Atlantic, orphanage is going to catch on fire -"

My eyes went wide, and when I swallowed the food in my mouth it tasted like sandpaper. "An orphanage? We have to -"

"She's kidding, Persephone," Hades gave me a reassuring look, then turned a scathing one on Cassandra; " _Right_ , Cassandra?"

She grinned at me and all I could think was _How can someone joke about that?_ "Sorry, Seph, forgot about your 'Save Everyone and Everything' attitude." I raised my eyebrows at her. _Seph? Save everyone and everything?_ Then, as she apparently read the confusion on my face, "Persephone is just so long and tedious -"

"It really isn't," I interjected.

"- and as for the other thing" - she tapped the side of her head with a finger - "saw that in here."

For a second I couldn't do anything but stare at her in baffled silence. _Who jokes about that kind of thing?_ I pushed away my plate, no longer hungry. "You said you'd take me to see Cerberus?" I prompted Hades with a glance.

Hades pushed his chair out, standing and taking long gulps from his cup of what I thought was coffee before setting it back down. He gestured with his arm, "Right this way."


End file.
